Disney Research uses 3D printing to bring animations into the real world

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Disney Research has developed a method to bring animated characters into the physical world.

The researchers used 3D printing to create a number objects which were animated by mechanized cables and joints. To demonstrate the technique, the research created a puppet-like character, an animatronic hand and a gripper.

Titled ‘Designing Cable-Driven Actuation Networks for Kinematic Chains and Trees’, the paper combines researchers from MIT, ETH Zurich, the University of Toronto and Disney Research.

Vice president at Disney Research Markus Gross believes providing these physical tools is similarly as important as digital animation tools were in the past. As he says, “a number of design tools developed over the past 30 years have enabled artists to breathe life into animated characters, creating expressions by posing a hierarchical set of rigid links,”

“In today’s age of robotics and animatronics, we need to give artists and hobbyists similar tools to make animated physical characters just as expressive.”

Using the design software, the researchers were able to expand from animated figures into functional grippers and hands.